Synopses & Reviews

Publisher Comments

This teaching edition of Shakespeares Macbeth reprints the Bevington edition of the play accompanied by six sets of primary documents and illustrations thematically arranged to offer a richly textured understanding of early modern culture and Shakespeares work within that culture. The texts include facsimiles of period documents, excerpts from King Jamess writings on politics, contemporary writings on the nature of kingship and tyrannicide, Puritan and Catholic tracts, conduct book literature, and contemporary witchcraft pamphlets.

Synopsis

'Macbeth' is a tragedy, one of eleven that Shakespeare wrote. Like other tragedies, this one centers on a prominent person who after a significant struggle, suffers defeat. In this defeat the person achieves heroic stature. 'Macbeth' has been a favorite of readers, theatre-goers, and actors for almost four hundred years and is considered one of the best of Shakespeare's plays.

Description

Includes bibliographical references (p. 369-377) and index.

Table of Contents

About the Series

About This Volume

List of Illustrations

Introduction

PART ONE: WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE,MACBETH (EDITED BY DAVID BEVINGTON)

PART TWO: CULTURAL CONTEXTS

1. Representations of Macbeth

Early Narratives

John Major, From A History of Greater Britain

George Buchanan, From History of Scotland

Raphael Holinshed, From The Chronicles of England, Scotland, and Ireland

The Cultural Afterlife of Shakespeare's Macbeth

Simon Forman, From Book of Plays

Thomas Middleton, From The Witch

From "The Story of Macbeth," in A Collection of Divers and Remarkable Stories

Sir William Davenant, From Macbeth, A Tragedy

Thomas Duffett, Epilogue to The Empress of Morocco

2. Discourses of Sovereignty

The Succession Controversy

R. Doleman [Robert Parsons], From A Conference about the Next Succession to the Crown of England

Henry Constable, From A Discovery of a Counterfeit Conference

Sir John Hayward, From An Answer to the First Part of a Certain Conference

From Succession Act

The Jacobean Theory of Kingship

King James I, From Basilikon Doron

King James I, From The True Law of Free Monarchies

King James I, From A Speech to the Lords and Commons of the Parliament at Whitehall

Sir Robert Filmer, From Patriarcha: Or the Natural Power of Kings

Royal Charisma and the King's Touch

William Tooker, From The Divine Power or Gift of Healing

William Clowes, From A Right Fruitful and Approved Treatise

John Howson, From A Sermon Preached at St. Mary's in Oxford, the 17. Day of November, 1602

3. Treason and Resistance

Resistance in Theory

John Ponet, From A Short Treatise of Politic Power

From An Homily against Disobedience and Willfull Rebellion

George Buchanan, From The Powers of the Crown in Scotland

Philippe du Plessis Mornay, From A Defense of Liberty against Tyrants

Resistance in Action

Nicolo Molin,Reports to the Doge and Senate

King James I, From A Speech to Parliament

Equivocation

Sir Edward Coke, From Speech at the Trial of Father Henry Garnet

Henry Garnet, From A Treatise of Equivocation

Robert Parsons, From A Treatise Tending to Mitigation towards Catholic Subjects in England

4. The Cultural Construction of Scotland

William Harrison, From The Description of Scotland

William Shakespeare,Henry V, Act I, Scene 2

Sir Thomas Craig, From A Treatise on the Union of the British Realms

Fynes Moryson, From An Itinerary

Sir Anthony Weldon, From A Perfect Description of the People and Country of Scotland

John Taylor, From The Penniless Pilgrimage, Or the Moneyless Perambulation

5. Witchcraft and Prophecy

Discourses of Witchcraft

Reginald Scot, From The Discovery of Witchcraft

George Gifford, From A Dialogue Concerning Witches and Witchcrafts

News from Scotland

King James I, From Daemonology, In Form of a Dialogue

An Act against Conjuration, Witchcraft, and Dealing with Evil and Wicked Spirits

Prophecy

From An Act against Fond and Fantastical Prophecies

Henry Howard, From A Defensative against the Poison of Supposed Prophecies

Reginald Scot, From The Discovery of Witchcraft

William Perkins, From A Discourse of the Damned Art of Witchcraft

Michel de Montaigne, From Of Prognostications

Francis Bacon, From Of Prophecies

6. Discources of the Feminine

Reginald Scot, From The Discovery of Witchcraft

Philip Barrough, From The Method of Physic

Edmund Jorden, From A Brief Discourse of a Disease Called the Suffocation of the Mother

John Sadler, From The Sick Woman's Private Looking-Glass

Helkiah Crooke,, From Microcosmographia: A Description of the Body of Man

Elizabeth Clinton, From The Countess of Lincoln's Nursery

James Guillimeau, From Childbirth, Or the Happy Delivery of Women

Bibliography

Index

ILLUSTRATIONS

1. Genealogy of the Kings of England and Scotland at the Time of the Play